Almost 68 million people spoke a language other than English at home in 2019, and more than 41.7 million of them spoke Spanish, according to a report released today by the Census Bureau.
The number of people in the United States who used a language other than English at home more than tripled, from 23.1 million in 1980 to 67.8 million in 2019, according to the most recent figures.
In the same period, the number of people who only spoke English rose from 187.2 million to 241 million, the report added.
The Hispanic population in the US is the largest minority with almost 62 million people, and in 2019 Spanish was the most common language in homes in the country other than English, some 12 times more common than the other four languages that follow.
Among households in which a language other than English was used, 61.6% used Spanish, compared to 5.2% using Chinese, 2.6% using Tagalog, 2.3% who used Vietnamese and 1.9% who used Arabic.
The report shows that 51% of Tagalog speakers in 2019 and 54% of Chinese speakers had an undergraduate degree or higher level of education, compared to just 17% of Spanish speakers.
Almost 33% of the people who spoke Spanish had not graduated from high school.